Sometimes expectations can be a trap for a reviewer. We come to expect a thing from a musician, and when they deliver something else entirely, it can jar, and lead to an undeserved bad review.
Had I reviewed Yasmine White's second CD right after I received it, I might well have done just that. Her first CD, Simple Truths, features Yasmine and her guitar, and used that simplicity to best effect, making the quiet songs into private musings, and giving the fiercer ones an intimacy that makes the point much sharper. She even took the chance of going entirely a capella, to stunning effect.
Because she was so good at conveying her thoughts with uncluttered arrangement, I assumed that it was a part of her style. When I first heard that she'd featured several other musicians on her second, self- titled album, I presumed it would be in a background capacity, a few extra touches to set off her own talents.
I was not expecting a unified band sound at all. I wasn't expecting something that on some tracks approached folk-rock, or a sound so smoothly polished it started to nudge into the better aspects of pop.
It turned me off on the first listen, and I went back to Simple Truths, trying to see if I could see any link between the two albums, but only a handful of tracks, like "Love," recall her first effort.
Still, to review an album, a good reviewer will give it multiple listens, think about it, and then give it a few more. So I put the album back in, to try and pick out what was wrong with it, so I could best voice it.
Of course, within the second listening, I found myself conceding that yes, I liked some of this new approach, and by the third, I was tapping my foot or humming to the bouncier songs.
The most active new sounds are Will MacFarlane (who is noted on her web site as having worked with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne) on mostly-electric guitar, and producer Wes Lachot on piano and various keyboards, both of whom also share some songwriting credits. Their tracks are all over the songs, their input and interpretations clear and beneficial, without quite stealing the spotlight from that lush voice. And Yasmine's own songwriting rises to the occasion; rather than trying to do the same old thing, just with more noise added, she accentuates new aspects in her own writing, adds punch and power when it's called for. If anything, that adaptability proves her a stronger musician than I first thought.
The album starts with the soaring "In My Mind," heavy on Evan Nicholson's drums, showing off the best qualities of pop-folk. "I Almost Trusted You" is a near-rock shout, full of tightly controlled anger. "Love" plays on the same themes as the classic "The Rose," even starting with the words "Some say love . . . ." But it's a jazz tune, and so takes its own direction, and, in the tradition of jazz, the echoes are by way of homage and theme-and-variations play.
"Starve Me" is a savage condemnation of anorexia and the modelling industry, obvious but not quite pedantic. The music itself is a little stretched, jagged as staring ribs on a too-skinny body. I'm wary of overly political songs, but it's a powerful piece.
"See Her Whirl" is about an aged woman, and a moment of joyful dance with a partner she may or may not even recognize anymore. It's probably my favourite track on the album, the melody is simply lovely, the lines are full of small perfect details.
I'd recommend Yasmine's first album to any fan of singer-songwriters and girls with guitars. I'd recommend her second album much more widely. The band gives it a polish and a pop appeal, and Yasmine has proven now that she can stretch, and adapt, and remain true to herself all at once, as few can. She deserves a broad audience -- and if she keeps on as she's begun, she'll earn one very soon.
